Alibaba Group further expands into the fintech industry infusing cash into online invoice exchange

16 May 2017

Today it was reported that Alibaba participated in the seed round investment into Hong Kong based online invoice exchange platform Qupital with the total amount raised accounting for $2 million. Qupital is allegedly the largest online invoice discounting exchange in Hong Kong helping companies seeking additional financing to pledge their accounts receivables for a loan.

On the platform companies may get access to funds by auctioning their unpaid invoices to investors, or how they are called by Qupital, “Funders”. Funders may examine and make their bid on invoices listed on the exchange, and once the company receives the payment against the pledged invoice, Funders are reimbursed with interest paid.

Qupital, incepted last year by Andy Chan and Winston Wong, raised total amount of $2 million in the seed round led by Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund and MindWorks Ventures, with participation of DRL Capital and Aria Group and other investors. The raised capital will be used for improving technology capacities and expansion of the service further into the area.

This is the first move of Alibaba into the fintech in Hong Kong, but not the first in the fintech sector in general, as its subsidiary Ant Financial was named the globe’s largest fintech company. It is the last investment of the Group into the fintech industry in the series of other cash infusion into the industry including merger with MoneyGram international transfer service, but it seems there is more to come in the future, as fintech sector in Asia is aggressively thriving making the region a favorable place for startups.